It is now official. Scholars have analyzed the data and confirmed what we already knew in our hearts. Social media is making us miserable.

We are all dimly aware that everybody else can’t possibly be as successful, rich, attractive, relaxed, intellectual and joyous as they appear to be on Facebook. Yet we can’t help comparing our inner lives with the curated lives of our friends.

Just how different is the real world from the world on social media? In the real world, The National Enquirer, a weekly, sells nearly three times as many copies as The Atlantic, a monthly, every year.… Seguir leyendo »

True or false: During the holidays, people suffer unusually high rates of depression.

This much-repeated statement is false. In fact, the opposite is true.

In an earlier article, I reported that Google searches for “depression” are the lowest on Christmas and the days surrounding it. Over Christmas week, searches for “depression” are 10 to 20 percent below average, which is a highly significant difference. But it’s not just depression that drops. Searches for “anxiety” and “suicide” plummet during the holiday season.

Ghrapic: Glum Christmas? Not on Google.

I am not sure what it says about me, but I have chosen to spend the early part of the holiday season analyzing publicly available Google data.… Seguir leyendo »

During the Great Recession, child abuse and neglect appeared to decline. Incidents reported to local authorities dropped. “The doom-and-gloom predictions haven’t come true,” Richard Gelles, a child-welfare expert at the University of Pennsylvania, told The Associated Press in 2011.

The real story about child maltreatment during the recession is a grim one. I spent months studying this topic, using a number of different data sources, including Google search queries. I found that the Great Recession caused a significant increase in child abuse and neglect. But far fewer of these cases were reported to authorities, with much of the drop due to slashed budgets for teachers, nurses, doctors and child protective service workers.… Seguir leyendo »